TITLE:
Storage Potentialities of Some Exotic Potato Varieties at Farmers’ Condition in Bangladesh
AUTHORS:
Abul Kalam Azad, Humayun Kabir, Touria El-Jaoual Eaton, Edward Binod Soren
KEYWORDS:
Potato, Sprouting Behavior, Dormancy, Weight Loss, Tuber Dry Matter Content
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.8 No.2,
February
22,
2017
ABSTRACT: Potatoes have to be stored after harvest for a shorter or longer period in order to maintain even supply to the market throughout the year for direct human consumption as well as for the processing industry. The present study focused on the storage potentialities of six exotic varieties of potato viz., Diamant, Cardinal, Granola, Felsina, Provento and Asterix at farmers’ condition. The experiment was conducted during winter (December to March) for cultivation, and spring and summer (March to August) for storage at Domar Foundation Seed Potato Production Farm, BADC, Nilphamari, Bangladesh. Results revealed that there were significant variations in storage behavior among the varieties of potato tubers. Asterix showed minimum weight loss (7.10%) which was statistically identical with Cardinal (7.85%) while it was maximum in Felsina (18.83%) followed by Provento (13.41%) during four months storage conditions practicing by farmers (farmers’ conditions). In respect of rotting, significantly highest degree was found in Felsina (18.72%) followed by Provento (15.01%) and the lowest was in Asterix (2.02%) identically similar with Granola (2.22%). The highest percentage of water loss was found in Provento (27.01%) and the lowest was recorded in Asterix (17.03%). Dormancy period and sprouts per tuber were found highest in Asterix (70 days and 9.67) while the lowest dormancy was in Diamant (56 days) and the lowest sprouting was in Granola (2.50). Asterix was found to produce significantly highest amount of dry matter content (20.50%) along with higher amount of edible stored tubers (80.21%) compared to those of other varieties at the end of four months storage. Under the same condition, Diamant was the second highest producer of dry matter (20%) which was statistically similar with Asterix, and had good storage ability that retained 69.07% edible tubers, whereas Felsina contained the lowest amount of dry matter (16%) and showed poor storage ability retaining 55.85% edible tubers. Based on the results, Asterix possessed better keeping quality with long dormancy, minimum weight loss, higher tuber dry matter with edible tuber, excellent storage ability, low storage losses and rotting. However, the variety Asterix may be recommended for commercial storage under ordinary storage condition or farmers’ practice. Diamant ranked in second position considering the above circumstances, although showed better performances compared to the rest of the studied varieties.